AALEAD VA Programs

• Feels Like Home

  By Pallavi Rudraraju, VA Middle School Program Coordinator Photos Courtesy of Pallavi Rudraraju Hello, everyone! This is Pallavi, the new VA Middle School Program Coordinator. You might remember me from a couple years back, when I interned for Asian American LEAD (AALEAD) as the DC Elementary School Intern for Summer 2015.

  Farewell AALEAD

  By Yonsoo Kang, Previous VA Middle Schools Program Coordinator Photos Courtesy of AALEAD Staff My dear AALEADers, During my interview for the VA Middle School Coordinator position, then executive d

• AALEAD YEAH!

  By Yonsoo Kang, VA Middle School Program Coordinator Photos Courtesy of AALEAD Staff Hello again! AALEADers at Poe and Holmes Middle Schools have been working to improve their local community. We are part of an advocacy project called Youth Engagement and Health (YEAH!)Project where we try to assess and improve areas in our neighborhood to promote physical activity. Our Maryland friends at Loidermann Middle School (led by YLan Nguyen) are also doing this project while the ones at Argyle Mid

• Stories that Envision, Create, Transform

  By Neel Saxena, Executive Director Photos Courtesy of Saadia Ahmed On March 22, 2017, AALEAD hosted the Aspire to LEAD fundraising event at Top of the Town in Arlington, VA. This was AALEAD's 4th such fundraiser and my first as Executive Director. Last year I was behind the scenes and this year I had the incredible opportunity to join our youth in sharing our often overlooked stories as Asian Pacific Americans. This year's theme was Envision, Create, Transform. For our youth, staff, mentors

• ECAASU 2017: Atmosphere Leads to Expansion

  By Charles Kuo, DC Programs Manager Photos Courtesy of AALEAD Staff     18 youth. 3 program staff. 2 vans. 1 life-changing experience. On February 17, 2017, 18 of o

• Don’t Underestimate Young People

  By Yonsoo Kang, VA Middle School Program Coordinator Photos courtesy of Yonsoo Kang Hello again! In lieu of the recent election, it is undeniable that there has been a rise in incidents of hate, bigotry, and prejudice in schools around the country. I wanted to design a lesson for my AALEADers so they could see past and current scene of people who expressed hate and how others have decided to respond. Instead of using dreaded PowerPoint slides, we decided to create a gallery made up of wo

• Envision | Create | Transform and Aspire to LEAD on March 22!

  By Neel Saxena, Executive Director   Aspire to LEAD is about getting involved with Asian American LEAD to impact the lives of low-income and underserved Asian Pacific American youth. One of the ways to get involved is joi

• National Mentoring Month Highlight: Eugene K.

  By Eugene K., Current VA Youth Mentee Photo Courtesy of Eugene [caption id="attachment_14766" align="aligncenter" width="865"] Eugene (right) with this mentor, Dave (left)[/caption] This last youth mentee spotlight this month comes from Eugene, who is dual-enrolled in our Mentoring Program and our VA aft

• #AALEADFam is Forever

  By Tina Ngo, Mentoring & Volunteer Programs Manager Photos Courtesy of AALEAD Staff There have been many things that I've learned over the course of my time at Asian American LEAD (AALEAD), but one lesson in particular will always stand out to me. During an after school program session, a young person and I had a discussion about choices and how a single decision can create a ripple effect. I'll never forget this conversation because AALEAD youth speak truth: the choices that we make imp

• What AALEAD Is About

  By Yonsoo Kang, VA Middle School Program Coordinator Photos Courtesy of AALEAD Staff Hello everyone! We just had our winter holiday party at Holmes and Poe Middle Schools, so the past two days have been both fun and busy. I noticed the middle school holiday parties embodied core values of AALEAD, such as leadership, family, kindness, collaboration, enthusiasm, and finding your voice. A lot of AALEADers stepped up to help make the party successful because a few things were different this y